Bethany Baptist Church

The Sorensens have been enjoying the Pastor’s conference in Highland, Arkansas this week.

Bethany Baptist Church will have Jonathan and Natalie Vandenhurk, missionaries to England as guests, Sunday, August 12. There will be lunch in the fellowship hall at noon, an afternoon service at 1:00 PM and no evening service.

Pastor Bob Sorensen brought a message on “Burning Bridges” from Hebrews 11:15. When we are saved we are to leave the old lifestyle and walk in obedience to the Lord. Sometimes we may think that we are giving up too much and some people will turn back to the old lifestyle. In this faith chapter in Hebrews we see how people burned their bridges so that they could not go back.

In order to please God, we need to be willing to leave all that we have and follow God. One example is Abraham and Sarah. He had been asked to leave his home and his family to go where ever God sent him. He demonstrated his faith in God by being obedient to him. After they were in Canaan, they might have reflected upon all they had given up and gone back. But they did not.

Abraham and Sarah desired a better country. Moses could have enjoyed the pleasure of Egypt and might have become a Pharaoh, but he chose the afflictions of Israel for greater eternal riches, yet unseen. When Paul the Apostle was sitting in prison after having suffered through countless perils he might have thought back to his old life when he enjoyed privilege and position with the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, but he counted all that as worthless as garbage. Paul knew that serving Jesus Christ would bring him a much better eternal reward.

We must be willing to remove the avenues of return. If Abraham and Sarah had been mindful, that is if they had spent time thinking and talking about the life they had left back in the Euphrates valley, they might have gone back. The Ad industry knows just how great the power of suggestion is to the human mind. The food ads at meal time remind people that it is time to go get something to eat. Sometimes when people want to scrap an old habit they have to avoid the places, the music, etc, that they associate with that habit.

We must be willing to burn the bridges and stay where God puts us for the sake of the next generation. Abraham had Isaac and Jacob to think of. Their future depended upon his faithfulness. What we do reflects upon our children. We need to stay with God and remember that God’s way is always best.